Mai?
by Sonzelaanna
Summary: The gang takes on a job that becomes more than anyone expected. rated M for future violence
1. Something funny

**Chapter 1**

**Something Funny**

_**He deserved it**_

Dare? (1)

_**They all deserved it**_

Karera wa nani wo ukeru ni ataisuru ka? (2)

_**Soon… Be careful… It will burn…..It will all burn…**_

…

_A little girl crouched in the middle of the park rocking back and forth, it was late and she was all alone. Her long dark hair covered her face making it impossible to see. Mai approached her slowly. "Anata wa daijobudesu ka? Maigo ni natte shimaimashita ka?"(3) She didn't seem to hear her at all she just continued to rock back and forth, back and forth, it was almost hypnotic. The grass seemed dry and stiff under Mai's shoes, which was strange considering it had rained all afternoon. As Mai got closer she was able to pick out more of the little girls features. She was wearing a very thin plain white dress; it looked almost paper-like, like a hospital gown, only completely white. Her skin was an unhealthy pale. "Watashi wa anata o kizustukeru tsumori wa nai osoreta wa ikemasen. Tabun watashi wa Tasukeru toko ga dekiru, nani ga machigatte iru no ka oshiete kudasai."(4) Mai said comfortingly. Suddenly the little girl stopped rocking and looked up. "Mommy?"_

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Mai bolted up, alarm clock blaring. She was sweating and feeling uneasy. Though she wasn't entirely sure why.

"It was a dream? It felt so real, almost like a memory or something. That little girl seemed so familiar I wonder who she was." Mai got up and went to take her shower and get ready for work. "Maybe it was one of _Those_ dreams. " As Mai got out of the shower she glanced at her fogged mirror and nearly shot through the roof.

PO78913A1

Unnerved by the writing on her mirror Mai decided she didn't need to look at herself right now and she could come back and brush her hair and teeth after she got dressed. When she returned to the bathroom the mirror was still fogged, but there was no writing, just a normal fogged bathroom mirror "I must be losing it". That was one of the things Mai loved about her tiny apartment, the bathroom was like a tiny sauna, and it retained heat so well that it would remain foggy for a good 20 minutes after you finished a hot shower. Mai glanced at the clock as she came out of the bathroom. "Oh NO! I'm going to be late again! Naru's never going to let it go if I'm late again!" Mai ran out the door grabbing her coat as she went by. It was getting cold as fall was coming to an end and winter was fast approaching, giving that Sunday morning air a sharp frosty bite, that made your nose run. Even some of the leaves on the ground had a little bit of frost on them giving the ground a stiff crackle as Mai ran over the leaves on the sidewalk. The feeling and sound briefly reminding Mai of her strange dream, before the more pressing matter of getting to work on time quickly pushed the feeling away. Mai rushed through the SPR office doors 2 minutes late.

"You're late. Again." Naru's smug, yet annoyed voice stated.

"I know, I know. I'm sorry."

Naru didn't even acknowledge Mai's apology, he just returned to his office and closed his door but not before a quick order of "Mai Tea"

Grumbling about how rude her narcissistic boss was, Mai walked into the kitchenette to start the day's first batch of tea. Secretly praying Naru would at least acknowledge that she brought him tea today with a nod at the very least. The day went by slowly, not much happening other than the occasional paper sorting and the often order of "Mai Tea". To say the least it was boring and Mai was out of things to do, having already finished her homework for the week. There wasn't much to do other then gaze out the window and doze off…

_Burn… Burn….BURN…__**…BURN!**_

Mai shot up as the door chime twinkled, she felt sick and panicky, worst of all she felt like she had just been inside a furnace.

"Mai what's wrong? You look a little pale."

"Oh Bo-san, hi. No I'm fine just…"

"What are you doing here? Don't you have better things to do than to interrupt my workplace?" Naru demanded of Bo-san. Mai was glad for Naru's sudden interruption because she didn't really know what she was going to say or even how to explain her unease. Something bad was coming and it was going to happen soon.

I'm here with a proposal for your information, not that you're very busy if Mai here has time to nap at her desk." Bo-san joked.

Naru casted an annoyed side glance at Mai "Not interested."

"What! You haven't even heard me out yet, plus I'm going to need some help. Mai you'll help me, right?"

"Me! Why me?"

"Your dreams of course, I'm really not sure what to make of all this, and I'm sure one of your dreams would help. So what do you say Naru?"

Nar didn't answer, just walked over to his chair and sat down "Mai Tea" Mai and Bo-san just looked at each other and grinned knowing that Bo-san had won Naru over for the minute. Mai headed into the kitchenette as Bo-san sat on the couch and started explaining the job to Naru. Mai returned with the tea and joined Bo-san on the couch.

"You see the owner of this business is a friend of mine and has been having a lot of trouble lately." Everything Bo-san started explaining sounded just like a poltergeist to Mai, but there had also been some possessions that happened that didn't quite make sense.

"Well the problem seems quite obvious, even for someone like you, so what's so difficult about it?" Naru asked.

Mai just sat there and listened to them talk as she enjoyed her tea and a change from the daily bore.

"I know it's just that it all keeps escalating and a lot of different opinions have been called in already and all of them have failed to solve the problem. Yesterday 3 workers were sent to the hospital. One was dead upon arrival, one died early this morning and the other is still comatose. Not to mention the two that were killed on site, not that there was much left to identify them by."

"Was it a fire?" Mai suddenly asked tuning in to the conversation for the first time.

"How did you… Why would you… What made you say that? Nothing I said suggested that, but yeah it was a fire… Sort of"

"What do you mean?"

"Well according to the clip from the security camera I was sent. It looked like all five people instantly combusted at the same time. There was a shadow on the clip but nothing concrete I would have to go and see the room myself to be sure there wasn't anything that could have caused that shadow. That incident is the worst so far but other things have been happening to cause accidents. Like cabinets failing from the 3rd level without touching the side rails. But how did you know about the fire Mai?"

"Just a feeling I had just before you got here and a voice clearly saying 'Burn'"

"Why didn't you mention you had one of those dreams?" Naru snapped.

"I didn't have any time to and it wasn't connected to anything at the time so I didn't think it was important. It may not even be one of _Those_ dreams or connected to this."

After that discussion Bo-san and Naru continued discussing the job and hammering out the details of when and where we would all meet. Mai zoned out as they talked finding it no longer of any interest to her. She got up and went into the kitchenette to make up a new batch of tea. It's not like she had to be there they would fill her in latter all she had to do was pack the necessary clothing seeing as it looked like this case was not close by and that they might be there a while.

Tomorrow they would all go there and start figuring out how to put a stop to all these terrible events. Mai picked up the box of tea leaves and just for a moment the name on the box was replaced with PO78913A1 still written in the tea box's fancy French Script, before it went back to the normal French Black Tea. Mai had a bad feeling something terrible was going to happen, something that would change everyone.

to be continued

1- Who?

2- What did they deserve?

3- Are you okay? Are you lost?

4- Don't be afraid I'm not going to hurt you. Tell me what's wrong, maybe I can help.

Constructive criticism welcome, no flames


	2. Plane rides and premonitions

Chapter 2

Plane rides and premonitions

By the time the end of the week came by, Mai's bad feeling had been completely forgotten, and she was more than ready to take on the new case. She had cleaning duty today so Bo-san came to pick her up from school to drive her to the building that they were going to be working at; the building wasn't what she was expecting.

"What are we doing at the airport? I thought you said your friend was a business man not the owner of an airport."

"What did you expect? You we were going to drive all the way to America?"

"AMERICA!"

"Didn't Naru tell you to inform your school and grab your passport? Where did you think we were going that didn't require a plane but did require a passport?"

"Well, he did tell me but I thought I just needed multiple identifications for this job or something you didn't really say what your friend's job was. How was I supposed to know it's not some high security job or something?"

"Maybe you should spend less time sleeping at work and more time listening."

Mai just huffed unable to come up with a good comeback, considering she really should have been paying more attention when they were talking about where exactly they were going.

"SO I probably packed the wrong clothes than?" Mai said after a pause.

"How so?"

"Isn't it summer in America right now?"

"No, but the city we're going to is supposed to be hot year round. It's a good thing I was the one to call everyone else. Otherwise no one would be prepared."

Mai remained silent as they parked, grabbed their luggage from the trunk and headed inside to meet up with everyone.

"I can't believe Naru agreed to take a job in America and take all of us with. That's got to cost a fortune." Was the first voice that Mai and Bo-san heard and recognized as they arrived at the luggage drop off and ticket pick-up.

"Well Naru's not paying for any of it. The client is." Bo-san said answering Ayako as everyone came into view. Naru and Lin were giving strict instructions to the individual taking the luggage about how sensitive and fragile the equipment was. Naru was also informing the man just how much it was going to cost the man if any of the equipment was damaged by the time we reached our destination.

"So what kind of plane are we taking?" Yasuhara asked popping out from behind a crowd of people.

""Wait your coming too Yasuhara! What about college?" Mai asked worriedly

"Yep, I'm coming to cover for Shibuya-san again, plus my school is having major construction done on it since one of the support beams in the cafeteria collapsed taking down a huge chunk of the ceiling. So for now school activities have been canceled until the problem is solved. And on top of that the green house had a fire in it so the plants that I was studying are a little too crispy to get any good data from so, I don't have to worry about anything for that class either." Yasuhara stated unbothered by the events that happened at his school.

"Oh, sorry to hear that. I didn't realize that this was going to be another public case." Mai answered. Whenever they had a job with a high profile client or would be working with other research groups and there might be a possibility of the media getting involved Naru would call Yasuhara to be his stand in while he pretended to be just another assistant. Naru was strange that way. He was a narcissist who didn't want to be in the spot light, but had to always be right.

"Well hopefully it won't be, but seeing as this client is very rich and well known, Naru didn't want to take any chances." Madoka interjected popping up from nowhere.

"Madoka-san, good to see you again. Are you coming as well?" Yasuhara calmly asked while Mai just gaped trying to figure out how Madoka always manages to just randomly pop up everywhere without giving away her presence until she spoke.

"Nope. I just came to see you guys off, and to give you my number in case you need me to look up something for you, Yasuhara."Madoka stated cheerfully, handing Yasuhara a business card.

Once everyone had arrived and checked their bags in, the SPR gang head through security with Madoka wishing them good luck and telling Naru to bring her back a souvenir. They made their way through the busy airport to the terminal that their gate was located at. When they arrived at the gate an attendant quickly approached them. "Are you the Shibuya Psychic Research team?" she asked.

"Yes we are." Yasuhara answered immediately falling into his role as pretend leader.

"Good, very good. I'll take you to the plane. All your luggage has been loaded and it's ready to leave as soon as you are boarded and seated. This way please." She informed the group leading towards the door that would take them down to the jet that was waiting to take them to America.

Once they were all seated and their on-board luggage had been safely stored, the jet started for the runway only to get delayed by 3 commercial planes 2 landing and 1 taking off. After only 15 minutes of waiting Mai started to dose off, and was fast asleep before the plane even took off.

* * *

><p>"<em><strong>What's the first thing you remember?"<strong>_

"_Iru no ka?" (1)_

"…_**..I've tried, I've tried so hard to forget it all?"**_

"_Nani o o wasure desuka? Anata wa Watashi o oboete nani o shitai desuka?" (2)_

"…_**.."**_

_Everything was white and yet Mai felt like she was in the dark. Separated from everything. There was someone looking for her, she didn't know how she knew, but she did. She could hear muffled voices talking quietly just on the other side of the wall, she knew was on her left. She heard multiply crashes and things being broken. Suddenly everything went black before a shaft of light filled the room and someone walked into the room. Mai's vision went black. Mai was standing in what used to be a city street, but it looked as if a huge bomb had been dropped and than a tornado had gone through and completely demolished everything. No building had been spared, only a couple were little more than rocks under foot. Fires were burning all over the place, but it was eerily quiet, like there was no one, not even a stray dog or bird. Mai walked through the wreckage to where there was a small crater and a blue box. The strange thing wasn't that the box was untouched by the wreckage, but that Mai didn't find it odd, almost like she had always known that it would be right there at this time and place. She went past the box toward a huge chunk of building. The other side is where she needed to be was what she needed to see. As she stepped forward, the ground beneath her feet shifted. Mai glanced down and saw that she had stepped on a door. There was writing on the door under her feet; she stepped to the side so that she could read it._

_Po78913A1. Everything went black again._

_Suddenly Mai was in a classroom, just one of the students. It was snack time and she was hungry, Peanuts for a snack sounded good. "Sorera o tabeteinai, Karera no doku!" (3) A small voice whispered in Mai's ear. "Aren't you going to eat the peanuts -? The teacher asked her but the last part of his question was so muffled Mai couldn't understand what he had said. Mai didn't respond, for some reason she knew if she did she would be in trouble. "Are you going to eat the peanuts?" the teacher asked again_

"_Are you going to eat your peanuts?"_ _the teacher's voice was changing so Mai said the only thing that came to mind _"Nani?"(4)

* * *

><p>"I said are you going to eat your peanuts? Cause if you're not I'd be more than happy to take them off your hands." Bo-san offered. Mai stared at Bo-san for a minute before glancing down at the bag of peanuts lying on the fold-down table in front of her. She immediately felt sick and could only shake her head in answer, Bo-san smiled gleefully and snatched the bag of peanuts off the small table and started devouring them. Mai glanced around the plane. The seats were set up so that there were only two seats in an aisle, one on either side of the plane. Bo-san's, who sat in the aisle ahead of Mai, seat was facing Mai. John sat across the plane from Mai with Yasaharu facing him. Ahead of Bo-san was Masako with Ayako facing her, and across from them were Lin and Naru. Mai glanced over to where the Lin and Naru sat, in complete silence. Naru had his back to her and was going through some files, probably about the case or the client. She wondered if she should tell him about her dream now or wait until after the plane landed in America. She was hesitant because it didn't feel like one of THOSE dreams, it felt more like a memory, but she was sure she had never seen any of those places or people. Mai glanced out the window as she tried to decide what to do, when she noticed they weren't on the ground anymore. How had she missed something as crucial as that<p>

"We're flying!" Mai suddenly exclaimed not meaning to say it out loud.

"Oh course we're flying. Did you think jets swam?" Naru stated not even turning around, while everyone else tried to hide their smiles and snickers (except Lin and Naru because they didn't laugh and Mai could just feel Naru's smug grin through the back of his head).

Mai turned beat red, all the way to her ears. "Oh course I knew that! I'm not stupid!" Mai quickly tried to defend herself.

"Could have fooled me." Naru stated as he turned to glance at her, before returning to his files.

"Baka Naru, (5) I just hadn't realized we had taken off already." Mai mumbled quietly to herself, knowing that Naru would only make her look more like an idiot if she spoke up. Well if anything, the interaction had made up Mai's mind. Naru could mull over the case without Mai's most recent dream to put into consideration. Mai reached under her seat and pulled her MP3 out of her bag. Putting the ear buds in her ears and setting the music on shuffle, she started with a favorite song Gessekai by Buck Tick. As she stared out the window at the never-ending ocean down below she had a sudden sense of déjà vu, but it was gone as suddenly as it came. Bo-san continued to feast on peanuts (who ever knew he was such peanuholic), while Ayako decided to take this time to repaint her nails red. Yasaharu and John were in a deep conversation about the growing habits of Australian plant. Masako was trying and failing to engage Naru in a conversation. Lin had been sure to bring a large novel to read on the flight. Lin glanced up from his book and looked around the plane at everyone, taking a mental head count. He didn't know why but ever since the plane had taken off his shiki had been on edge and kept jittering about. Seeing and sensing nothing yet again he returned to his book, Fell. During Lin's head count he skipped right over the long dark hair girl in a bright red dress sitting at the back of the plane watching everyone, especially Naru with a harsh glare. Still glaring at Naru she stood and started stalking towards him. She paused as Masako stood up from her seat, stepping in front of the girl for a moment. The girl was in plain view of everyone except Naru who still had his back to her but no one even seemed to take notice of her. Masako turned to face the girl than walked right past her to head to the bathroom without acknowledging her at all. Once Masako passed her she continued toward Naru.

"Hey! Where did you come from?" Mai asked having just turned from the window she had been gazing out. Having noticed Masako walk by, she had turned slightly to see where she was headed and noticed a dark shadow out of the corner of her eye; she had turned toward to find this little girl stalking towards Naru. The girl turned toward Mai with a scared gasp.

"Mai? Who are you talking to?" John asked slightly surprised by Mai's sudden outburst. Mai, realizing everyone was staring at her turned to John and said "The little girl."

"What little girl?" Ayako asked just as confused as everyone else.

Mai turned to give Ayako an exasperated look and noticed the girl had vanished. Mai gaped stupidly for a moment at the spot where she had been. "She was right there coming up behind Naru…"

Lin turned his full attention on Mai now. "She was coming up on Naru? Do you know what she was going to do?" Lin asked, being far more talkative than normal.

"Well she was facing Naru, and I wasn't getting a friendly vibe from her that's for sure. I think I scared her when I called out to her though. She made a noise like she was afraid I was going to attack her like a stuttered whimper." Mai answered thoughtfully

"What did she look like?" Naru cut in finding that more important, he needed to find out if this girl was connected to the case, the jet, or even maybe himself. He didn't know how she could be connected to him so it had to be one of the other two. I f they were on a normal plane he would be sure she had something to do with the plane itself but because they were on a jet sent by the client, it was possible she had something to do with the case.

"Well I didn't get a good look at her but she looked about 7or 8, I'd say. She had dark hair a little past her shoulders and blue eyes. And she was wearing a short red dress with long sleeves." Mai described the best she could from the short glimpsed she had gotten of the girl.

"What about her name?" Bo-san asked hopefully

"I saw her. I didn't have a conversation with her. From the way she reacted to me I don't think she was willing to talk to anyone." Mai answered with slight irritation. She couldn't understand how everyone had missed the girl, she had been standing there clear as day for anyone to see, even Masako hadn't said anything when she walked past the girl.

"Masako did you sense anything when you got up?" Yasaharu asked as Masako returned to the cabin from the bathroom.

Masako covered her mouth with the sleeve of her formal Kimono "I don't sense any spirits." She answered in her quiet voice.

"What about anything else?" Yasaharu pushed

"No nothing now. But before I went to the bathroom I felt an intense anger, but it was only for a moment. As soon as I stood up to look it vanished." She answered softly.

"Mai you didn't notice the girl until Masako left?" Bo-san asked turning back to Mai "Did you sense anything before that?"

"Well sort of. I've been feeling uneasy about this whole thing since just before Bo-san brought up this case. I had a strange dream the night before and than one while waiting for the jet take off."Mai explained.

"You had another dream and didn't tell me?" Naru demanded calmly

"Well you…you were a jerk and it wasn't anything concrete, just random scenes and voices. They weren't even from any one place just all over." Mai stated indigently.

"Regardless. What seems random to you just means that the message is beyond your intellect level." Naru stated smugly

"Well if you're so smart and they're meant for you, why don't you get the messages instead of me?" Mai shot back

"You're so loud they can't find anyone else." Naru stated

"Or perhaps your narcissism is scaring them away." Mai bit back smugly, and for once there was no come back from Naru. Mai's smug look turned into a wide triumphant smile of victory when she realized she had stumped Naru. Naru stared at Mai, surprised she had called him a narcissist to his face. He knew they all thought he was a narcissist but this was the first time one of them had called him out on it. In the end Naru just sighed disappointedly and turned back to face forward in his seat hiding his own victorious smirk behind the file in his hand as he heard Mai huff and mumble something about how she couldn't win even when she got the last word. Lin watched the whole exchange feeling like he was babysitting a couple of 5th graders. He could understand Mai, Naru was a very difficult individual to talk to on even ground, but it was the fact that Naru was always egging Mai on. Ninety percent of the time it was Naru who started the arguments; Naru really could be very childish. Lin could see it all too clearly. Naru liked Mai far more than he was willing to admit. If he didn't like her, Mai would have been fired long ago for her lack of knowledge on paranormal research. Lin hoped that Naru would soon see how much Mai was like Gene and be able to let Gene go and move on. Hopefully with a semi-normal life, perhaps with Mai, she was definitely good for him. As Mai and Naru's argument came to an end, Lin sighed wondering if either of them would ever figure it out. Lin also took note that his shiki had completely calmed down, which convinced him that Mai was right in believing the girl she had seen couldn't have had any good intentions (having decided that the girl was the cause of his shiki's anxiety). After all that the plane ride went smoothly. The jet had to make one quick stop to refuel in Honolulu before continuing on to North America.

TBC

* * *

><p>Sorry for such the long wait, I should have the next chapter up shortly. All constructive criticism and feedback welcome.<p>

Now for the definitions

1. About what?

2. Forget what? What do you want me to remember?

3. Don't eat them their poisoned!

4. What

5. Idiot (or stupid) Naru


	3. The Client

Sorry for the long wait everyone. hope you enjoy it. Thanks to everyone who left comits they were very helpful.

Chapter 3

The Client

Everyone exited the plane to find a couple vans waiting to load the equipment and take them to meet the client. The ground crew carefully loaded the equipment into the back of one van, under the strict eyes of Naru and Lin, and the rest of their luggage into the other van. Lin insisted upon driving the van with all the equipment in it to insure its safe arrival. As everyone piled into the van, they discovered a lack of seats so Naru and Mai would have to ride with Lin and the equipment. Naru of course took the front passenger seat leaving Mai to squeeze into the back with the equipment again. The second driver who was supposed to drive the equipment van was riding with the other van since Lin had assured him that he would be able to follow them just fine to the destination. Mai could just imagine the others driving along chatting and joking, where as she was stuck in the back of this van crammed in with the equipment, which was poking into her side, she hopped the ride would be a short one. Worse yet she was stuck with the two least talkative people she had ever met, Naru who only spoke when he was trying to make her look like an idiot or when he was demanding tea. Lin who never said more than two words at any one time, and he only spoke when: silence, a look, or someone else couldn't convey the message in his stead.

"So… Have either of you ever been to America before?" Mai asked hoping to start a conversation.

"Yes." Naru stated. Lin didn't even bother to acknowledge that Mai had asked a question.

"…" Mai waited for Naru to expand on his trip to America. "Well, what did you come here for last time?" She asked finally deciding that Naru wasn't going to explain without a prompt.

"Work." Naru answered as he turned a page in the file he was reading, hoping Mai would give up on her attempt to make conversation and just learn to be silent.

"Workaholic" She mumbled. No such luck, for either of them.

Silence engulfed the van again as Mai excepted that she wasn't going to get anywhere. 'God I wish I was in the other van. Why do these two have to be such silent workaholics?' Mai thought to herself as they drove along. The drive wasn't that long but it felt like forever. Every attempt at conversation was shot down. Her request for the radio? ….. Ignored. Humming? ….. "Be quiet". Finger Drumming? ….. Met with Harsh glares from the other two occupants and an annoyed sigh from Naru. So of course she did the only reasonable thing to do… She took a nap.

* * *

><p><em>A male voice permeated her mind, as the rest of the world around her was solid white. "…God among men… Too dangerous… female…She's waking up!"<em>

"_My baby…where?" A female voice asked brokenly._

_The buildings had all crumbled and the streets were a giant network of cracks and jagged cliffs. There were craters everywhere and not a soul to be seen. Mai walked along looking for anyone. 'There up ahead' Mai ran up to a man. 'He's completely stiff, just standing there looking off into the distance away from. I wonder what he's looking at. He's completely covered in ash. What happened here?' Mai reached out to tap him on the back to get his attention, but as her hand touched him, he just went poof, into nothing but falling ash. Mai stumbled back, shocked and shaking. 'I thought he was a real person. No. I know he was!' Mai glanced around and could see dozens of ash people scattered about all completely immobile. Some of them she could see the faces of, and every last one had the same expression of surprise and horror. Some of them were froze in mid run fleeing from the unknown horror that had done this to them. _

"_Konichiwa?...Daremoga aru no ka?"(1) Mai called out to the ash people, hoping someone would answer. Mai started moving towards them, her pace gradually increasing as her panic started rising. "Daremoga aru no ka? Watashi ni kotaete kudasai. (2). as Mai passed the ash people, running now, they puffed into ash dust, from just the movement in the air as she ran past. Mai stopped running, because she couldn't bring herself to destroy anymore of the ash people. Then she realized there was no wind, but the sky was dark, and it wasn't night. She glanced behind her and saw her foot prints. 'Now I know' she thought to herself._

"_Konichiwa?"(3) She called out as she crouched to the ground_

"…_.." No one answered_

"_Daredesuka!"(4)She tried again_

"…_.." Not a sound not even the cricket_

"_Ore wa hitori ja" (5) She said mournfully feeling the tears pressing against her eye lids as she closed them tightly to try to prevent herself from starting._

"…_.I'm here" A voice whispered in the back of her mind_

"_Watashi wa hitori ni naritakunai.' (6) Mai whispered the words as she felt her heart breaking_

"_I will never leave you." The voice whispered again_

"_Dare ga kore o shita?"(7) She asked hoping the voice might know._

"…_.It was…."_

* * *

><p>"Mai wake up, we're here." Naru stated blandly, waking Mai abruptly from her dream. She jerkily looked around herself to find she was still in the van and Naru was staring at her expectantly. Naru waited until Mai had calmed down before moving out of the open van door and walking away "Start bringing the equipment in." He called over his shoulder to her, deciding he would find out about her dream latter. First thing first, it was finally time to meet the client.<p>

The building wasn't very tall, only 3 stories, but it was fairly long and wide, it also went two levels below ground. Naru had obtained all this information from the files he had been studying on the way here. As he approached the front doors while everyone else continued filing out of the van and gathering equipment and luggage, the doors opened revealing a man with platinum blond hair, he was wearing a business suit and glasses. Yasuharu immediately stepped forward to introduce everyone.

"Are you the Shibuya Psychic Research group? Which one of you is Mr. Shibuya?" He asked more of demanded.

"Yes we're SPR and I'm Kazuya Shibuya. These are my assistants Kouji Lin, Kazuo Narumi, Mai Taniyama over there. These 4; Masako Hara, Ayako Matsuzaki, Houshou Takigawa, John Brown, will be working with us." Yasuhara professionally answered, with all the same narcissism as Naru. The man looked us all over before nodding.

"Very well I will show you were to set up your base, as I'm sure you've been told there are other groups working here on this as well. There are extra rooms provided for you if you intend to sleep here. I will show you those as well." He told us stiffly. Mai took a mental note that the man had never introduced himself. Quite the rude client they were working for this time around.

"Very well, thank you." Yasuhara told the man.

Mai, Bo-san, John, and Lin, all grabbed some equipment from the back of the van and followed the rest of the group into the building. "Your friend isn't very friendly Bo-san." Mai informed him quietly so as to make sure the man leading them all didn't hear her.

"Oh, that's not the client. I believe that's the secretary." Bo-san answered happily, as they entered the room that would be their base for duration of their stay. Lin and Naru busied themselves with setting up the computers while Yasuhara talked with the secretary. Bothe Ayako and Masako where lounging in the chairs in the room watching everyone else work.

**Mai's POV**

After we finished bringing all the equipment in, the secretary with no name returned to lead us to a meeting room, so that we could meet with the client as well as the other groups that were here.

As I glanced around I got a weird sense of déjà vu _'Aren't you going to eat your snack?'_ The dream! This place had something to do with the dream I had had. I increased my pace so that I was walking just behind Yasuhara on his left. "Did this place use to be a school?" I asked the secretary who was ahead of Yasuhara. I could feel the others staring at me, they knew I hadn't had a chance to look at the files on this case.

"Yes it was, up until a couple years ago. I see you guys did your research before coming here. I don't believe that information was included in the files we sent you." He bit back as though I had insulted him. I wasn't sure why he was angry, it couldn't have been my English because I'm the best in my class back in Japan. As well as the fact that I have been speaking English even before I entered grade school. It didn't really matter the time to dwell on it had come to an end as we stopped in front of some doors and he opened them ushering us in.

In the room it was quite obvious not everyone was together. There were two women sitting together, one maybe a bit younger than Ayako with long blond hair and brown eyes, the other quite a bit older with grey hair tied back in a bun and brown eyes as well. Both of the two women were dressed in very simple blue and brown dresses, nothing like the other two women in the room. The other two women looked very similar to one another probably sisters. They both had medium length black hair pulled back into a French braid. They wore uniforms of black shoes, red socks and shorts, and a black T-shirt saying in red letters MGIT. They were standing next to three men who were dressed similarly except for the man in the middle who must have been the boss. He was dressed in long black suit pants, wearing a black blazer with the same lettering on the other shirt over the breast pocket. He had fiery red hair that was short and slightly spiked; his eyes were a dark green, which I could clearly see as he leered back at us. I quickly turned my attention to the only person who was standing alone. She was a beautiful woman with short cropped blond hair very similar to my own style minus the bangs. She was dressed in a blue business suit, though the front was unbuttoned so you could see the white blouse underneath. She lifted her head and looked at us welcomingly as we entered, her brown eyes glanced us over before stopping on Bo-san. This must be the client.

* * *

><p>Translations:<p>

Hello?...Is anyone there?

Is anyone there? Please answer me.

Hello?

Anyone!

I'm alone

I don't want to be alone

Who did this?


	4. Explanations?

Chapter 4

Explanations?

**Mai's POV**

"Good, everyone's here now." The Blonde woman standing alone stated as she walked to the head of the long conference table in the room and sat down, gesturing to the rest of us to do so also. Once everyone was seated around the table she began. "I'm the one who called all of you here, my name is March Takigawa. I am the current owner of this building. I'm sure you've all read up and the files I sent you explaining what's been going on around here. The renovations of this place went fine initially, but after all the walls had been rebuilt, something happened that caused a change in the attitude of whatever is haunting this place."

"What makes you so sure this is a haunting?" one of the two MGIT girls asked

"I don't, I'm not the expert, you guys are. All I know is that a lot of people died here, many of them quite violently." March answered

"How much do you know about the deaths before you bought the building, seeing as that wasn't included in the files?" Yasuhara asked.

"Not much. What I do know is that a lot of people were murdered here, all at the same time. The building is only 29 years old. When I bought this place it was in shambles but the government had checked all the debris and cleaned out all the bodies. I don't know the exactly what this building was before because all of the files concerning it were destroyed, and the people that would know are either dead or refuse to talk about it. I do know that a bomb did go off here and killed everyone." March explained.

"You bought this building without knowing anything about it?" The young blonde women asked, slightly appalled by the idea.

"I wanted more space and this place was ideal. It's quite large with three levels above ground and two below. Be sure not to get lost, all of you should have been given the most up to date plans of the building that we have. Before anymore questions are asked I would like for everyone to introduce themselves so that you all know one another see as you will be working around one another." March directed us smoothly into introductions. She turned to the two women indicating that they should start.

"This is Lady Madeline Fruchi, and I am her assistant Amelia Smith." The young blonde woman introduced.

"I'm Mason Beau, I'm the owner of Mason's Ghost Investigation Team. These two men, David and James are my equipment managers. The two women are my assistants Belle and May." The fiery, red haired man introduced. Yasuhara introduced us as well before March told everyone we should return to our base and finish getting set up, and that she would be coming around to check on everyone and answer any other question we had.

* * *

><p>When we arrived to our base we checked on all the equipment to insure they were all in working order and had survived the trip here. There was a knock at the door as March entered. She looked us all over again before addressing us<p>

"I'm so glad you could make it. Houshou kept boasting about how successful SPR is and the fact that you guys can solve the cases that everyone else fails at. If you didn't already know, including the other two groups you met I've hired nine other groups in the past to solve this but they've all come up empty handed. If no one can solve it this time I'll probably have to wire some explosives to return this place to how it was before I bought to discourage other people from trying to buy it. I had been having so much trouble getting this place ready that I had tried to have it completely demolished and start again from scratch, but every time I tried that, the machines wouldn't work and the workers all either caught on fire from unknown sources or had strokes and had to be sent to the hospital. I can't even get any more construction workers to come within a mile of this place let alone work in it. I can't even condemn this place because the homeless or even just youngsters looking for a thrill will come into the building. I tried to have this place tag off as dangerous three months ago, but some college students decided to ignore the warnings and went in anyways. 12 kids went in only 2 came back, one of them horribly injured as if something had tried to tear him apart. He died two days later in the hospital. The other is in the Hartlin Mental Hospital. All she capable of doing is muttering, babbling nonsense and rocking back and forth." We were a little surprised at all the information she gave us without prompt.

Yasuhara immediately took charge "What about all your employees who were working here when this all started?"

"Those that haven't gone mad and been sent to mental hospitals, are taking some time off until this issue has been resolved." March answered. I glanced over at Lin and Naru to see if they had anything to say about this. Naru was watching the whole thing impassively, while Lin was busy typing everything up for future reference.

"Is there any way to talk with the individuals that saw something happen?" Yasuhara asked March. I was impressed with how well he seemed to understand what Naru would want.

"It shouldn't be too difficult. I can arrange for those that are able, to come here and speak with you, as for the ones in the hospital I can arrange a vehicle to take you there to speak with them if you wish." March answered pleasantly. She seemed willing to do whatever was necessary to help us solve this.

Yasuhara turned and glanced back at Naru to see if he had anything to add. Naru glanced at his watch before speaking. "If you want us to stay on schedule Shibuya, we will need to do the interviews as early as possible."

"I can get most of them here as early as 8:00A.M. Would that be sufficient?" March asked.

"Yes, thank you." Yasuhara answered, smiling.

"Well it's late and I still need to speak with one other group before I call it a night, so Oyasumi (1)." March stated kindly while heading for the door.

"One more question before you go Ms. Takigawa." Naru called after her.

"Yes?"

"You said in the meeting that you didn't know what this building was used for before you bought, but your secretary told us that it used to be a school. Did you know that?" Naru asked her.

"Which part? That this was a school or that my secretary told you that? Doesn't matter. I suspected that it was a school because of some of the debris that was left, but I don't know for sure. "She said simply. She waited a moment but when no one said anything else she went out the door.

"Oyasumi, March." Bo-san called after her.

"So, how do you know her? An old girlfriend?" Ayako said as soon as March was well out of ear range. I laughed in my head because of the bite of jealousy in Ayako's voice and the fact that she missed the resemblance between March and Bo-san, as well as the fact that they had the same surname. When I looked at Bo-san and he had the most disgusted look on his face.

"GIRLFRIEND! That's disgusting!" Bo-san voiced the words so clearly visible on his face.

"Couldn't you see it Ayako?" I asked laughing slightly.

"See what?" Ayako huffed

"The resemblance. I'm guessing she's your sister, right?" I stated directing the question to Bo-san.

"Yep, my onesan (2), by a few years. She left home and moved to America when she was 18 and almost immediately became a major leader in big businesses here. Becoming a COO of some big company when she was 23 and then becoming the CEO by the time she was 28." Bo-san boasted lightly.

"I'm surprised you didn't pick that up from the name alone, Ayako." Yasuhara stated cheerfully, adding his two cents to the conversation.

"Where are you going Naru-bou?" Bo-san called after Naru, who was heading out the door.

"Seeing as there's nothing left to do for tonight, I'm going to my room." Naru stated as he walked out with Lin close behind. We just stared at the closed door for a moment, and then Bo-san raced over to his bag and shot out the door after Naru. Again, all we did was stare at him and then the door. Yasuhara and John both calmly walked over to their bags and then out the door wish us girls a good night as they left. So we followed suit and went to our room for the night.

* * *

><p>"<em>Okay kids here a little slide show, just watch the pictures and repeat the words said." The teacher told us as we sat at our individual desks. The classroom was small and brightly colored with our drawing on the wall and a couple of posters. There were about 15 first graders in the room and one teacher. The lights went out and the slide show began, starting with a TV "Television" a voice recording said. "Television" The whole class repeated, except for a quiet voice near me whispered "Teacher" I turned to look at who was there because it had sounded like they had whispered it straight into my ear, but no one was there, no one was even looking at me. The next slide was a man in a lab coat. "Teacher" the recorded voice said. "Teacher" We repeated, but the whispering voice said "Snake" instead. I glanced around again but still nothing. "Snake" A voice said. I looked around surprised to find that someone had repeated what I had been hearing only to see a picture of a snake on the board as the class repeated. "Helper" the whisper told me. 'It must be telling me what image is coming next. But that doesn't seem right for some reason.' The slide show continued. After the helper was a picture of a doctor helping a child. After that was a picture of a child. Followed by a brain, than a playground, and lastly a vacuum. The voice always saying what was coming next. After the slide show finished it was time to learn how to spell the words. Spelling finished and we were on to snack time. While everyone was eating their snakes, a memory came back to me of one of the other kids. He had left the school, but before he left he told me that the snacks were poisoned. I knew no one would listen to me if I told them so I just didn't eat the snacks or lunch the school provided. "Good girl." That voice from before whispered. The teacher came around and looked at my untouched plate "Not eating again today?" She asked<em>

"_Not hungry" I mumbled softly._

"_You haven't eaten anything at school for the last three days I think you should go see the nurse." The teacher said. As we walked down the hall I heard that voice again._

"_Run! Get out now before it's too late! RUN!" It said in panic. I hesitated; I didn't know who this voice was. We were at the door now; I turned away, but the teachers arms suddenly snaked around my shoulders and she pulled me into the nurse's office. The office was white, all white, everything. I was getting nervous now, I didn't like the nurse. He scared me. Whenever he was near me I felt he didn't want to help me, he wanted something from me. The two adults talked to one another while I just sat on the cot._

"_Why haven't you been eating Erica? Do you not feel well?" He asked in fake concern_

"_I just haven't been hungry while here, is all." I mumbled softly wishing I could just go back to class. They turned back to one another, whispering so that I couldn't hear them, but I did catch a few words. "…no parents…Calvin…the class….same thing…" 'What were they talking about? Calvin was the one who told me the snacks were poison. Did they know?' Now I was really getting nervous. 'Maybe I should just sneak out while they weren't looking.' _

"_Too late" The voice stated suddenly, so solemn and sympathetic. There were hands on my shoulders making me lay down while the nurse stuck a needle in my arm, my whole body went numb, and the teacher picked me up and put me on a gurney behind the curtain. 'Why is there a gurney here?' They pulled straps across me and buckled them down._

"_Don't worry Erica, you're sick but we caught it early so we'll get you all fixed up." My teacher said standing over me and talking down to me. 'Liar' I thought to myself unable to say it out loud. The gurney started moving but we weren't leaving the office we were going further back. 'What's going on? Where are they taking me?' A door opened in the wall and we entered it. I was no longer nervous, now I was out right terrified. 'What are they going to do to me?'I felt a sharp prick in my neck, and then the door closed. I felt like I was floating as I heard a soft droning hum surround me, than it stopped. I was dizzy and disorientated; the only thing going through my head was the words teacher/snake, snake/teacher, over and over again. My teacher is a snake, she bit me. That's what that voice had been trying to tell me, the adults were all snakes and they were going to eat us. My mind was getting really hazy as I heard a grinding noise of a heavy door closing. I could only watch as the last slivers of light disappeared with a click as the door fully closed. The sound of an electronic bolt sliding into place sealed the door, and two more words popped into my head. I spoke them out loud "Too late."_

* * *

><p><strong>Normal pov<strong>

Mai woke with a start, hyperventilating from the lack of light and a suffocating feeling of claustrophobia. At first all she could hear was the sound of her own breathing, but as she slowly took in her surroundings and her eyes adjusted to the dark she could see Ayako and Masako. She didn't calm down until she was able to her Masako's slight snoring over her own ragged breathing. Unable to go back to sleep Mai got up and headed over to the base. Mai could see the glow from the monitors showing through the bottom of the door, for a moment she was seized with a sharp stab of panic before it faded a moment latter and she walked through the door. No one was in there, but that wasn't too surprising considering it wasn't even 1:00 am yet. It was still dark but the light from the moon shown in through the window adding to the glow from the monitors in the room. Mai sat down at the table with the monitors and glanced across the screens looking at the screen that showed the room she was in, which was set up as a test to make sure it was in working order. Something flickered on the screen to Mai's left. That screen showed the notes Lin had taken yesterday. Nothing was wrong with it though, but she scrolled through them anyways, to see if she had missed anything yesterday. In the doorway of the base stood a boy dressed in a white uniform watching Mai look over the notes.

"I know you." He sang softly causing Mai to jump and spin around but the boy had already disappeared and Mai was one again alone in the room. With her nerves on edge, Mai moved over to the couch in front of the window, feeling calmer with a wall at her back. Still unable to sleep she drew her feet up onto the couch, wrapped her arms around her legs and resting her chin on her knees, she stared off into space.

* * *

><p><strong>Translations<strong>

1. Good night

2. Older sister


	5. Disappearing Rooms

**Sorry for the delay everyone here's the next chapter. Thanks for all the reviews everyone, they are really helpful.**

**Chapter 5**

**Disappearing Rooms**

Mai was still staring off into space when Lin and Naru walked into the base.

"Mai what are you doing here?" Naru asked surprised to find her up before them.

"Huh? Oh, I couldn't sleep so I just decided to come here so as not to bother the others" Mai answered coming out of her daze.

"A dream?" Naru asked getting straight to the point.

"Yeah it was connected to part of the dream I had on the plane." Mai answered

"Only part of it?" Naru asked slightly confused

"I think I'm seeing two unrelated visions. I can't find any connection between the two." Mai stated. Lin glanced over the monitors before leaving the room. He left one of his shiki behind to keep an eye on things, just in case that girl Mai saw on the plane followed them all the way here.

"You still haven't told me about your dream from the plane or even the one I'm sure you had on the van, so let's start who those. Be sure to describe them in as much detail as possible." Naru instructed as he got up to grab a note pad and sat down at the desk. Mai was only half through the dream she had on the van when Lin came back in carrying a tray with three cups of tea on it. He gave Mai and Naru their respective cups before taking his over to the monitors to check over the equipment.

By the time Mai had finished describing all of her dreams since the plane ride the others were just starting to arrive, ready to start the day. Naru jotted down one last note before addressing the others. "This is a large building so we will be splitting up into pairs to take the readings. We'll set up the camera's after we've interviewed everyone for now just take readings in the rooms. Hara-san and John-san, the two of you will start taking reading on the first floor. Mai and Bo-san, you two start on the second floor, and as soon as the employees arrive and are settled, Mastuzaki-san and Yasuhara-kun, you two will start on the third floor." Naru directed everyone.

There was a knock on the door and then March entered "Ohayogozaimasu (1)! My employees are here now. Where would you like them?" She asked

"We'll interview them in here one at a time. I leave the interviews to Lin-san and Narumi-san." Yasuhara answered while smoothly excusing himself.

"Very well. They are all down in the conference room. I will tell them. I have other work to attend to, so if you need anything Houshou knows how to get a hold of me." March stated as she left. Her leave was the signal for everyone else to get to work.

Bo-san and Mai took the stairs leading up to the second floor. They decided to start on the east end of the building which was furthest from the base and work their way back. You could easily tell where the reconstruction stopped because everything out side of the reconstruction area was in shambles. The walls were torn up and there was debris all over the floor, everything from paper to chunks of concrete. There was various tools and materials piled up here and there. They knew the construction had been stopped abruptly but it still seemed weird to see everything just left sitting there. Bo-san and Mai rounded the corner and saw a figure standing at the other end. Mai immediately starts taking the temperature and EMF reading, because it's obvious to both of them that the figure at the other end isn't alive. It emitted a white glow and it had a human form but it wasn't quite solid they could see the wall though it. They couldn't get over to it because the floor was collapsed in front of them.

"Are you getting any readings?" Bo-san asked

"Just faint ones but we should definitely go over there and take some more readings." Mai answered

"We need to get over there anyway because that stairwell on the other side is the only way to a cluster of rooms on the floor below. According to the blueprints anyway." Bo-san stated with false cheerfulness.

"There must be another way? Or we could just try going down the hole it looks like a regular floor down there, so we might be able to get to the rooms there and then back up using that stairwell." Mai suggested, not entirely confident with the idea but ready to give it a try non-the-less. Mai started making her down the hole, seeing as the collapsed floor made a nice lumpy walkway down. Bo-san was wary about climbing down there when he could still see the figure on the other side hadn't moved, but Mai was right they did need to find a way over and it looked stable enough for them to come back up this way if need be. That and there was no way he could allow Mai to go down there by herself "Fine… but be careful, okay?" he said reluctantly.

"Do you have a flashlight; it's kind of dark down here?" Mai asked ignoring Bo-san's earlier statement.

"Yeah, here." Bo-san said tossing Mai the flashlight just before she dropped down the last bit to the floor and disappeared. "Mai!"

"What?" Mai asked reappearing in the light showing down from the floor above. She had turned on the flashlight and was shinning it just below B-san so he could see where he was going. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, never mind. I couldn't see the glow from the flashlight, so I thought you might have dropped down another hole that we hadn't seen from above." Bo-san stated feeling a little embarrassed for worrying over nothing.

"Okay, well it's not too bad down here. It's just around the opening that there's a lot of ruble. It does look like the collapse took out the lights down here though." Mai said moving on. Bo-san dropped down the last bit and looked around before answering "We should tell Naru-bou about that figure and the hole." He stated thoughtfully. Bo-san pulled out his walkie-talkie "Lin,Naru?"

"What is it Takigawa-san?" Naru responded over the walkie-talkie.

"Just an update. I think we may have run into a spirit over on the far east side of the second floor hallway, just before the stairs leading to those cutoff rooms on the first floor." Bo-san informed calmly

"What happened?" Naru asked

"Nothing, but that staircase is inaccessible from the second floor. The floor in the hallway before that collapsed. We're down in the cut off area taking a look and some readings." Bo-san stated

"How did you get down there?" Naru asked

"We climbed down the hole." Bo-san answered

"Can you get back up?" Naru questioned

"Yeah, we should be able to get back up the way we came down, but we're going to try to see if we can get to the stairwell on the other side." Bo-san answered

"then when you're finished meet back at the base." Naru told them

"We haven't finished taking the readings for the other rooms?" Bo-san questioned

"That's fine. There are more specific areas on want everyone to concentrate on." Naru said

Mai and Bo-san started exploring the area. It was it small hallway but the west side was blocked off by the collapsed floor from above. Mai noticed a glow coming from around the corner. They both continued toward it taking readings as they went.

"There's nothing out of the ordinary down here even the temperature is the same as above even though it seems so dank." Bo-san stated as he walked through another puddle yet again.

"I think the water is coming from those broken water mains over there." Mai pointed out some broken pipes by the ceiling to their left. It seemed strange that the pipes were still dumping water, because none of the damage around here seemed recent. The water should have run out a while ago. When they came around the corner Mai found the source of the glow was coming from the only room on the right side of the hall. Unlike the rest of the area, all the lights were on in the room, there was even a TV running in there. "There's a TV running in there!" Mai said, confused about how it could be running and why.

"There shouldn't be any power down here. Take an EMF reading." Bo-san instructed just as confused as Mai.

"There's nothing by the door but there are a couple points above us. This is probable just below where that figure was standing." Mai said looking over the readings she was getting trying to understand what was going on.

"Then let's go in and take readings." Bo-san said. Mai reached out and turned the knob on the door, and pushed it open. Everything went white.

**Mai's pov**

_When my vision cleared, I knew I was dreaming. There was no room ahead of me, and I could feel a breeze at my back. Standing in the door frame that I had just opened, I saw a desk and some chairs in front of me partly covered in grass. Beyond them was nothing but an open, rolling grassy field. The grass was a golden, green color swaying softly in the breeze I could feel. Out of the corner of my eye I could see light behind me. Spinning around to see what was there, I jumped back in shock. For just a moment I there had been a dark-haired women standing behind me reaching out for my face menacingly, only inches away from touching me. She was gone now, but that didn't stop my heart from racing. Now all that was behind me were more rolling grassy field, no dark hallway, no Bo-san. I looked back the other way to inspect what was here since I didn't see dream Naru anywhere. Atop the hill straight in front of me was a tree with a swing hanging down from it, and next to that was what looked like a little girl in a red dress. 'Maybe the same one from the plane, she really must have something to do with this case than.' I quickly started approaching the girl hopping to get some answers this time. I was about 5 feet from the girl when she turned to face me, but before I could even get a look at her face, my vision went white again _and I found myself standing in what looked like a classroom. I turned to look for Bo-san, thinking I was back in the room that we had been just about to enter, but there was only a wall behind me. The door I thought I had come through was lying on the ground by my feet. I looked up to make sure the floor hadn't dropped out and the doorway was above my head, which would help to explain why I suddenly had a vision. The only thing above was the ceiling, no dropped floor.

**Normal pov**

"Bo-san?...Bo-san! Dokodesu ka? (2)"Mai called desperately

"….." There was no answer. Mai was really starting to worry. She was fairly certain she wasn't dreaming anymore, just to be sure she pinched her arm. Rubbing her now sore arm she looked around the room searching for a clue.

"Bzzt…Mai!...Mai! Can you hear me?" Mai heard Bo-san's voice. She spun around looking for where it was coming from.

"Bzzzt… Takigawa-san what's going on?" Naru's voice questioned

"Bzzt… I must have black out for a minute , because when I looked up Mai was gone. I could have sworn there was a door here, because we were going to go in cause there was a light and TV on inside. I'm going to go a little farther down the hall maybe something just moved us to different parts of the hallway or something." Bo-san explained not entirely convinced with what he was saying.

'The walkie-talkies!' Mai thought having completely forgotten about them. Naru had made sure everyone had their own. She quickly pulled out her own "Can anyone hear me?" She asked into the walkie-talkie.

"Mai! Thank Buddha! Where did you go?" Bo-san cried relieved to hear Mai's voice again.

"That room, I think. I went through that door and must have blacked out, because I found myself outside in a field I've never seen before, and that girl from the plane was there. When came out of it I was in that room we were going to go in but the door is lying on the floor, and there's just a wall were the doorway should be." Mai explained as simply as she could

"Mai try to find a way back to the base. The rest of you should come back as well for now so we can regroup. Stay close to your partners we don't want anyone else disappearing." Naru ordered over the walkie-talkies. That was easier said than done. For Mai to find her way back to the base, first she had to figure out where she was. As Mai looked around it was obvious that this place had been a school there were small desks scattered about and posters on the walls. The one thing that really told her it had been a school was a poster on the wall that said welcome first graders. On one wall was a colorful banner that had been colored over. Stick monsters and dead people were drawn all over it and at the bottom center larger than the stick monsters and people was drawn an unhappy girl with long dark hair.

"Bzzt…Mai turn your radio to channel 3 and leave the talk button on." Naru instructed Mai.

"Okay." Mai answered before changing and setting her walkie-talkie. She carefully made her way through all the over turned desks and scattered papers covering the floor to the door on the other side. Mai started up the dark hallway not noticing the nameplate on the wall of the room she had just come out of 'PO78913A1'. Farther up ahead Mai could see a ceiling light was flickering on and off. Mai shown the flashlight off to either side of her as she walked noting that this part of the building really looked like a school. On either side the walls were lined with dark green lockers, and there were other classrooms as well. Mai paused and looked inside one of the classroom and found that it wasn't much different from the other one she had come from. There were desks scattered about some of them over turned. As Mai opened the door to take a closer look, papers fluttered on the floor. She noticed that unlike the other room this one had cubbies along one wall, and inside of them were some school bags. Mai approached the cubbies and noticed there were a couple of paper bags in some of them, but it was a box that caught her attention. 'A lunch box?' Mai thought to herself as she reached out for the box. The second she picked it up all the lights in the room turned on, _and she was now sitting at one of the desks and reading a book. As she glanced out of the corner of her eye she could see other kids all around her sitting at their desks doing the same thing._

"_Okay everyone reading time is over. Time for lunch." The teacher standing behind his own desk told the class. Mai got up and went over to the cubbies and picked up her lunch box, as everyone chatted happily around her. Suddenly the classroom door slammed open and three men dressed in black pants, long-sleeved shirts, with bullet proof vest over them and wearing black helmets with tinted half face shields stormed in._

"_Everyone to the basement. Take nothing with you." The first man ordered_

"_You can't just come barging in here! This is a scho…" 'Bang' The teacher never got to finish what he was going to say as blood splattered the white board and the teacher fell to the ground with a thud, knocking his chair over in the process. The kids all started screaming and crying, while the man who shot the teacher again order everyone to the basement. The other two men had their rifles out were forcing everyone to line up and march out the door, knocking desks and paper all over the place in their hurry to make sure they didn't miss anyone. One of the men grabbed Mai as he ripped her lunch box out of her hands and tossed it back into the cubby while shoving her into line with the others._

The vision faded and Mai was back in the dark, messy classroom, holding the old forgotten lunch box. "Gun men… That's what happened here" Mai said simply, to herself. She turned her flashlight toward the front of the classroom where a white board hung on the wall and sure enough she could just make out the old blood splattered there. A deep dread and panic seized Mai as she approached what was left of the teacher's desk and looked behind it. She gasped and stumbled back, tripping over one of the other desks and landing hard on her butt. Behind the desk laying on the floor was the half decomposed body of the teacher from Mai's vision. Mai couldn't do anything but sit there and shake for a minute, trying desperately to pull herself together because she knew no one was coming to get her she had to get over this on her own. The teacher was mostly skeletal, but there was still some flesh on his body. His clothes were worn down and moth-eaten and covered in a layer of dust. There were even still some clumps of hair attached to the top of his head. "How long ago did all of this happen? It couldn't have been that long ago if there's still flesh on part of the skeleton." Mai scrambled back up to her feet starting to feel sick. The room was starting to feel stifling and the air had a slight static feel to it. As soon as Mai was out of the room she started to feel better, but the static in the air only seemed to increase outside of the room. Mai wanted to get back to the base this place was too much for her by herself. She continued down the hall seeing a flickering light at the end which kept revealing a staircase leading up. As she got closer she could feel the charge in the air increase causing the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. Suddenly a desk and chair went flying across the hall in front of her to slam into a door on the other side. Mai ducked down just in case something came flying at her. When nothing more happened she carefully inched forward to look around through the door the desk and chair had come from she immediately jumped back with a cry as a ghoul came screeching at arms outstretched. It vanished right before it touched her. "This place…This place is violent. I don't care what anyone else says this place is trying to kill everyone. The sooner I find Bo-san and get back to the base the better.

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><p><strong>Translations<strong>

Good Morning

Where are you?


End file.
